Lea (drumsofautumn)'s Reviews > Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit hit me right in my heart and gut. It was beautiful and relatable and a book that I'm so happy to have brought into my life.


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This book took me on an emotional ride from page one! Going into this, I thought it would just be a fun f/f romance Contemporary but I got so much out of it.
One of my favourite aspects, mostly because we don't get to see it a lot in queer books, is the huge connection to religion. Not only is Jo the daughter of a reverend but she's also pretty religious herself. I loved that there wasn't really a conflict between her sexuality and her faith in god but rather the way everyone in her religious community sees these two things. I loved seeing both Jo and her dad trying to make the community more inclusive and how much Jo wanted to use her position to help and influence other people.

“Kissing Mary Carlson is spooning homemade peach ice cream into your mouth on the hottest Georgia day. It is shooting stars and hot lava. It is every goose bump you’ve ever had in your entire life built up and exploding all at once.”

I also loved seeing the different experiences when it comes to discovering and living your sexuality. With Jo being out and proud and sure of her sexuality for a long time and her love interest only coming to terms with it, I feel like a lot of people will find themselves relating to either one of the characters. And I liked that. My favourite thing about Contemporaries, especially queer ones, is when I can relate to the characters. And seeing a book that features such a wide variety of experiences, not only with the discovery of your own feelings but also with the coming out process and the way other people treat you, was really great.
While we're at that topic, this does deal with a lot of homophobia and I wanna make it very clear, that while relatable, a lot of it could also be triggering and harmful. I don't think any of it was written badly, for me it quite honestly enhanced the experience overall, but I know and understand that it is gonna be hard for a lot of queer people. So please be cautious if you do wanna pick it up. You can ask me for details at any time!
Oh and yes, both characters identify as lesbian and it's said on page several times. That was fantastic!

Apart from the romance, which I thought was wonderful, I truly loved the family dynamics. The relationships Jo had to her dad, her stepmom and whole family was so complex and the development extremely well done. Especially the way Jo and her stepmom grew together throughout this novel made me super emotional and showed so much character development for both of them.

Now I do wanna mention that there's a couple of things that stood out in a not so good way. I noticed a couple of things throughout the book that seemed a little bit less inclusive than I would've wanted from a queer novel. I just wish the writing had been a little less binary and more inclusive of multiple gender attraction. It wasn't a huge issue for me and really only came up in a couple of paragraphs, so I'm being really nitpicky but as I said, it's just what I've come to expect from queer novels.
What definitely stands out more problematic is ableism. It's nothing that I can exactly pinpoint but there is a character with an intellectual disability that it just written in a way that irked me some of the time. And also some of the descriptions, thoughts and feelings that the main character and others have towards him, seemed super off. Like the fact that his sister's friends degrade him? That really left a bad taste in my mouth.

So yeah, this novel is definitely not without flaws by any means. But I can't help it, I loved it unconditionally and as a queer women, it is a story that I'll cherish forever.

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